Jimmy Neutron: Saving Sheen
by 88MilesPerHour
Summary: Sheen Estevez has blasted off to planet Zeenu and will experience a world full of adventure. However, he is not the only one with an action packed agenda. Jimmy and his friends have their own memorable journey in store for them as they set off to retrieve Sheen. They will have to conquer and combat enemies at a whole new level. Will Jimmy Neutron be able to handle saving Sheen?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One: Goodbye Sheen

It was hard for Jimmy to concentrate with the demands, complaints and worries of his friends and family ringing through his ears. The quaint backyard where his clubhouse was situated, was filled with glares, rolling eyes, tears and pointed fingers, all directed at him. He had gotten used to this type of reaction from the citizens of Retroville towards himself. After all, he did cause plenty of havoc on a daily basis, which left the town pervaded in a constant cloud of mayhem. However, this time there was little he could do to reassure the people around him, for even he was stumped as to how he was going to fix this situation.

One of his best friends, Sheen Estevez, was gone and it was entirely his fault.

His parents were furious at him for constructing yet another rocket set for another mission, and for his failure to retrieve their permission in order to do so. Sheen's grandmother was in hysterics collapsed in the grass with Libby at her side trying to console her. Sheen's younger sister stared at him with huge brown eyes surrounded by pools of tears. As for Mr. Estevez, he crouched beside Jimmy and spoke in a low, but shaky Mexican accent. He pleaded, "If anyone can save my boy, I know it to be you, Jimmy. Please do whatever you can to find him. I do not blame you for his departure, but I trust that you will do whatever it takes to ensure his return as safely as possible. Any hope we have, I place in you. Please do everything you can."

After what seemed to Jimmy like an eternity of swimming in a pool of guilt as thick as tar, the Estevez family managed to pull themselves away from the Neutron's yard and back home. His own parents watched the Estevez family leave and went in the house, but not before looking down upon him with utter disappointment. The boy genius sighed and sat down on the little plastic chair next to the entrance of his lab. Carl Wheezer, his other best friend whom he trusted dearly, came over and patted him on the shoulder. Trying to reassure him, he said, "Aw it's okay, Jim. You couldn't have known Sheen would have completely ignored those accurately placed little notes you put on anything he shouldn't touch, with short demands that totally would not have distracted a mind as hyperactive as his. Those vague notes that had nothing to do with Ultralord or possibly Retroland, which if they had, could have completely swayed Sheen's attention span to other things. It's alright, Jim, you couldn't have known something like this would have happened. There wasn't really anything you could have done to perhaps—"

The irony within his voice was unbeknownst to Carl, but he stopped talking when he turned to see Jimmy standing at the wall of his clubhouse knocking his forehead against it repeatedly. Jimmy sighed again in defeat and slumped down into the grass. Why had he been so careless? Forget shielding the lab against the threat of nosy females, his two best friends were enough of a handful. However, that thought quickly dissipated as Cindy Vortex marched up to him shouting at the top of her lungs. "Nice going, Nerdbomb! Your ginormous brain is always thinking away, but it never considers the consequences of its thoughts, does it? I don't know what sort of cockamamie ideas roll around in that big head of yours, but they never fail to result in sheer destruction and wild pandemonium for everyone within your vicinity!" she lectured.

Jimmy rolled his eyes and glared at the girl standing before him with her scowl, crossed arms and foot tapping lightly in anticipation for his retort. He was not in the mood for her incessant bickering and walked up to her. "Holy Heisenberg, Vortex, you're always so high up on that almighty horse of yours! Look at me, I'm Cindy Vortex, all bubbly, blonde and can do no wrong! That's right! Ignore my big mouth, bossy nature, obvious anger issues and completely illogical ankle freezing pants, because underneath all of that I'm simply perfect you see. Check me out!" he bantered.

Jimmy strutted around the lawn in attempt to mimic her way of walking. Cindy's eye twitched and jaw clenched at the sight of the boy's inconceivable nerve. She kept yelling as she waved her hands in the air frantically to get him to stop. She raged, "Neutron, you annoying little jerk! This isn't a competition as to who is the most insufferable, even though if it were it would clearly be you! This is about that new rocket of yours being a complete waste of time and brain cells! You already have a rocket! Haven't we had enough contact with extraterrestrial beings?"

The boy genius threw his arms up in aggravation. "Of course I have a rocket, Vortex, but this rocket wasn't built to hold any passengers, only a single person," he hinted.

Cindy squinted and wrinkled her nose in confusion. "Oh that's rich, because gallivanting through all of space on your own is a brilliant idea. Taking off on your own family and friends would have no repercussions at all. You've seen firsthand people's grief over the loss of Sheen, why would you have wanted to cause people to panic over you?" she questioned.

Jimmy's features softened and, with his hands in his pockets, he shrugged, "You said it yourself, Vortex. I just thought that maybe I could escape for a while and leave everyone here in peace. Picture Retroville as an isolated system, where no matter or energy can enter or exit, and cannot be created nor destroyed. Now, just as the second law of thermodynamics explains, the entropy of an isolated system is forever increasing, since there is limited energy that can be used to put things back to the way they were. Therefore, it's simpler to leave things as they progress. My inventions are sort of like that, causing such great disorder that, despite my best efforts, cannot be stopped from increasing Retroville's entropy—"

Cindy shook her head. "Enough science spiel Neutron. Get to the point," she sighed.

Jimmy took a deep breath and explained, "I thought if I left, Retroville could have had some sense of normalcy for a while. I could have found a planet where there would have been no distractions, so that I could have focused on perhaps beating Leonardo da Vinci's invention record and no one could possibly have been harmed. Alternatively, I could have found a more advanced planet, which had a love for science like mine that would have accepted me."

Cindy's mouth gaped open from hearing this. She had ranted about Jimmy's catastrophes ever since he moved here, but she had not thought he was ever listening to her incessant babbling. It was hard for her to see him harboring so much pent up sadness, and she certainly did not want to be the cause for putting those thoughts in his head, causing him to want to do away with himself. She frowned and took him by the shoulders. "Jimmy, listen to me. I know sometimes I can be hard on you, but you really are capable of producing some great things, even if sometimes they don't quite work out as well as you planned for them to. That's the whole point of being a scientist though: trial and error. It all starts with an idea, and it takes off from there. Consider Goddard, it must've taken so many tries to create him, but you did it and he truly is the most useful and loyal companion there is out there…even though he went on a destroying rampage too, but that was Timmy's fault. People like you are needed in order for society to progress and we appreciate that about you…I appreciate that about you," she admitted.

Jimmy's wide eyes blinked in shock. Even though they clearly had feelings for one another, it still caught him off guard whenever she said something heartfelt. He could never understand their relationship. They could have such nice moments, like when he had kissed her after the fiasco with the television news show. However, eventually, they would go back to their arguing selves. He gave her a lopsided smile and stuttered, "Wow Cindy, th-thanks. That's really nice of you."

With that, Cindy let go of him and shoved him to the ground. Looking down at him, she smirked remembering their time on Mars. "I'll always be a distraction wherever you run off to, might as well get over it," she laughed.

He blushed, while she looked up at the sky narrowing her eyes with her hands on her hips.

"Enough pitying yourself now, Nerdtron, and get to thinking about how we're going to save Sheen," she ordered.

Jimmy looked at his three friends standing before him: Carl, Cindy and Libby. He grinned,

"Alright, let's save Sheen."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Gotta Blast

Jimmy poured every ounce of heart, soul and devotion he had into building this new rocket that would guide him and his friends to Sheen. Complete with essential equipment for their survival, ultimate navigational systems, the latest weaponry technology and an impressively durable protection capsule, the Neutron-Galacticon was ready after two months of ceaseless labor and brainpower.

It was during late June that Jimmy decided to show the gang the finished product. Their faces lit up as they stepped inside, imagining vividly the incredibility of their future departure. Libby squealed in delight and raved, "This has the sickest surround sound ever! I am totally down with this."

Carl wandered over to the seats with a hint of unease. "Umm…Jimmy, did you make sure to make these out of skin sensitive materials? You know how sometimes I can get hives and swell up pretty bad…" he worried.

Jimmy waved off his friend's anxieties, too busy with the controls to look at him. "They're fine, Carl. I considered your medical problems, and constructed them out of tight woven silks and cottons rather than wools, polyesters or synthetic materials. Just don't forget to bring your medications anyway," he replied hastily.

Carl sighed in relief. "Aw thanks, Jim, you're the best," he marveled.

With that, he threw himself onto one of the seats with glee, only to twist the wrong way and end up complaining about his scapula. Cindy pushed him out of the way, huffing with annoyance. "So when are we going to get this show on the road? It'll be a miracle if that Ultrageek is still alive given all this time," she rolled her eyes.

Jimmy turned to her with a triumphant look on his face. "I had programmed that rocket to only land on planets which contain some sort of life form. It also would have sent out a signal back to the lab if it landed and failed to pick up any signs of life in it or within a 100-mile radius of it. That way, Goddard would have known, and have been able to notify you all if…I uh… Anyway, that hasn't happened yet, so Sheen should still alive," he said with confidence.

Cindy's eyes were wide with alarm from hearing of Jimmy's possible death, but she quickly recovered by shaking her head and not letting the boy genius know how much it affected her. "Yah that's real nice, but what about the space car we got from the Intergalactic Showdown?" she inquired.

Jimmy turned back to his controls, lifting his eyebrows. He sneered, "That thing suffered some exterior damage due to its plummet to Mars' surface because of a certain someone…the only reason we made it back home was because of that energy source, which I now use for more important things in the lab than a type of fuel. Anyway, this is my best work yet!"

Behind him, Cindy laughed nervously and changed the subject. "So when are we leaving, Neutron?" she asked.

Jimmy smirked, "Tomorrow, I've already programmed our awesome camp counselor Chip to let our parents know about the awesome time we'll be spending at 'away camp' for a month."

His friends looked at one another worried with thoughts of 'I can't believe this is really going to happen' running through their minds. They watched their genius friend slip under the console panels for another routine check. He didn't seem stressed, so they had nothing to panic about. However, they couldn't have been more wrong, because away from their gaze, the boy genius' hands trembled as he screwed the last panel shut.

* * *

That night, Jimmy's mom sat on the edge of his bed and kissed him on the forehead. She let her son know that she was excited for his summer plans, but she also told him something that surprised him. "Jimmy, your father and I were worried about how you were handling Sheen's disappearance, holed up in your lab for months. When you didn't blast off into space though, I have to say we were rather relieved. Accidents happen, and it's not always up to you to fix everything. Sheen did what he did and that's that. Don't get me wrong, I feel terrible for the Estevez family, but I don't think your father and I would have been able to handle it if anything had happened to you instead," she admitted.

She smiled and blew him another kiss from across the room before closing his bedroom door. Jimmy turned to Goddard and sighed, "What's the probability that they'll find out about summer camp being a lie, boy?"

Goddard rolled over and his green screen glowed in the dark showing Jimmy a result of 76%. Jimmy looked up at his ceiling with nothing to say, his brow curved upward in sorrow.

* * *

They were ready. After cheerful farewells, Jimmy and his friends walked down to the park where they told their parents the 'bus' would pick them up. Jimmy turned off the ship's cloaking device and they all went inside. Now, they were about to set off into the unknown. Carl gazed out of a window a little concerned. "I sure hope this will be a safe and quick journey. I don't want an alien stuck to my face again or to run from a giant chicken again, or for anything else to happen," he stressed.

Cindy sighed with annoyance, grabbed the back of Jimmy's seat and shouted at him.

"Pick up the pace, Neutron! Let's go already!"

They were doing this. They were going to save Sheen. Jimmy took hold of the primary lever and blasted them into the sky.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: To Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone Before

Jimmy watched the navigation radar where a red dot blinked, indicating their whereabouts and the directions to possible life inhabiting planets in surrounding galaxies. Beyond them laid infinite wonders, discoveries and adventures just waiting to be explored. Jimmy was ecstatic, for he would be the almighty conqueror of all of time and space! He was lost in his thoughts when Cindy's screeching voice pierced his ear canals. "So where are we off to first, Spewtron?" she nagged.

Jimmy shot her an unamused look and then directed his gaze at everyone. "Judging by our current speed, we should arrive at the first destination on the scanner in about ten hours," he confirmed.

Cindy crossed her arms and huffed, "Last time it took us three days to get to Mars—"

Jimmy shook both of his hands out in front of himself cutting her off. "Not this time you see! I've managed to make certain advances in warp technology that have allowed us to—"

Now it was his turn to be cut off by Libby. "Hey Jimmy, I hope you don't mind me asking, but where the heck do you get all of this stuff? I don't know about you guys, but I've never seen any of that plutonium stuff at any grocery store," she wondered.

Jimmy smiled and raised his index finger.

"Ah but you see it's really quite simple. Let me explain."

The next hour was filled with the sound of Jimmy's rambling voice. Around them spun astoundingly bright stars and humongous gas planets. Streaks of colourful nebulas paved the way and large asteroids rolled about here and there. How the unknown could be such an eerie yet beautiful thing. The gang did what any kids would do for a ten-hour ride in a small craft and played eye spy, go fish, listened to music and bugged Jimmy as to whether or not they were there yet. Eventually, most of them drifted to sleep. Carl's eyes glazed over the empty darkness of space until a stunning planet came into view. He plastered his face against the window in awe of its orange-clouded atmosphere and purple lands. He called for Jimmy. "Jimmy! Jimmy! What's that place? It's so alluring," he said in awe.

Jimmy startled awake and peered out of the windshield. "Why Carl, that pulchritudinous planet is our first stop. Everybody hold on," he announced.

They plummeted into the planet's atmosphere and deployed the landing gear. They landed firmly on the ground and the sealed door burst open. Jimmy told Goddard to stay back to guard the ship and hopped out first, wandering around with his tricorder and backpack in search of signs of any earthly metallic remnants of Sheen's spacecraft. His three friends followed in suit, mouths open in wonder. The ground was an orange rubble dirt and rising from it grew twenty-foot tall purple stalks of what looked like grass. Jimmy told Goddard to stay and guard the ship. They criss-crossed their way through like ants invading the silent world. Carl called out.

"Shheeeen! We're here to save you! SHHEEEEN!"

Cindy clamped her hand over Carl's mouth. "Shut it you dweeb! We don't know what the heck is on this planet that could hear you! You could get us all killed!" she seethed.

Carl's eyes widened with the sudden horror of realizing what type of life forms they could be dealing with. He started hyperventilating. "Oh my gosh, I-I don't know if I can handle this as well as you guys. What if Jimmy's wrong and Sheen's really dead and we're just out here risking our lives for nothing. Oh my gosh Sheen might be dead! I-I didn't really think about it, he was one of my best friends. Oh my gosh, but if we died that would be even worse! What are we doing? I want to go back home!" he broke down.

Carl turned into a mess of waterworks and then gasped, "I'M MISSING THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF LLAMAS!"

Cindy spun around to face Carl and screeched, "If you don't cut the noise right now, I will personally end you regardless of what could be surrounding us. I don't care about you, Sheen, llamas or this stupid planet, but I do care about my life, so shut it!"

She walked faster to catch up to Jimmy. Carl and Libby watched her. Libby looked at still trembling Carl. "Don't worry, she didn't mean that, she just gets snappy," she assured.

Carl turned to Libby. "I know, but if she doesn't like us, why did she come?" he asked innocently.

Libby nodded over at Jimmy and Carl caught on. "Ohhhh hehee, gotcha," he winked.

Over ahead, Cindy walked alongside Jimmy. Jimmy noticed her presence and kept glancing at her, but pretended to be consumed in his work. Cindy, on the other hand, looked at everything but him, until she grew tired of awaiting a greeting from him and cleared her throat. When the boy genius still did nothing, she spoke up. "Sooo...have you gotten any readings? This is a pretty neat place, I mean everything is just so…purple and…orange. Makes you appreciate our colour spectrum back home," she said, trying to spark conversation.

Jimmy quickly answered, "Negative, I won't receive any complete data for another 23 hours and fourteen minutes. Actually, there could be a high variety of colours here, but we're only capable of seeing certain wavelengths."

Cindy nodded, "That means we're stuck here for an entire day…how fantastic."

Jimmy didn't sense her sarcasm and continued, "On this planet one day on Earth is actually four days here, so things should be interesting."

Cindy's face fell a little at Jimmy's lack of engaging topics of conversation, but kept talking. "Yah, we'll get to witness a totally different day and night cycle," she added.

Jimmy took a deep breath and surprised Cindy by taking her hand. She looked at him and was met by his gaze of admiration. "True, but the best part is that we'll be seeing it together," he said.

They smiled blushing and leaned in, but Libby interrupted their romance on a whim. "Hey guys! Do you hear that? It's some sort of music coming from the plant life!" she called.

The four kids looked around and sure enough, there was a soft and airy melody coming from above them at the surface of the plants. Jimmy's eyes narrowed, "That's exceptionally peculiar. I had thought that since the photoautotrophs here had so little phenotypic variation, perhaps they wouldn't be capable of harboring any advanced characteristics."

Carl scooted closer to his friends and gulped, "And in other words that means…"

Jimmy sighed, "I had thought they were harmless."

Cindy put her fingers to her temples in thought. "Or these specific life forms are so advanced, that they won any possible type of interspecific competition and ended up taking over this entire planet by natural selection," she suggested.

Jimmy brought his hand to his chin in thought. "That very well could be, but if that's the case then we could be under the watch of something extremely deadly and beyond our genotypic abilities," he pondered.

Cindy waved her hand in front of herself. "Then no way should we stay here. Let's get out of here while we still can," she countered.

Jimmy raised his eyebrows while rummaging through his bag. "What, and miss this exciting opportunity to observe what makes these creatures so superior? I think not! We'll use this grappling hook to reach the surface, come on!" he said, ignoring Cindy's concern.

He started to climb with Carl and Libby on his coattails. Cindy kicked the ground grumbling. She could tell this was a bad idea from a mile away, but she nonetheless went after her friends. After all, she didn't want to be stuck with saving more than just Sheen.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Into the Lion's Den

_Sheen's Log Stardate 74_

_Dear Grandma,_

_I must say that I grow tired of awaiting Nesmith's completion of the fixing of my spaceship. He is slow, complains sometimes, and questions my genius ability (which he thinks I actually have). My friend Jimmy back home, would have finished the rocket months ago, wouldn't have complained because he loves doing this stuff and wouldn't have questioned my genius ability (which he knows I don't actually have). I must say I miss, Jimmy, but I sort of like Nesmith more because he has more patience and doesn't put my life in danger. I enjoy living to the extreme when I'm in control of it though, so I put my own life in danger sometimes anyway. For example, I go tornado jumping with Aseefa. It's an incredible experience and Aseefa is incredible too! I've never met a more awesome girl. No, I haven't forgotten Libby, she's just a different kind of awesome than Aseefa. Libs resides in clear waters, whereas Aseefa swims with the sharks. Sometimes I miss my Queen of Funk, but in the meantime, I have Aseefa to hang out with! A girl that I don't really miss is Cindy. That girl had some serious anger issues. She once made Carl cry for two days, which was totally mean (but also awesome). I'm pretty sure Jimmy's into her though, even though he denies it. How you can like a girl who is constantly trying to bring you down is beyond my comprehension, but Jimmy does just that (maybe he's the one with the problems). Anyway, life on Zeenu is still pretty good. I accidently broke Dorkus's house again (hahaaa Dorkus). I get the feeling that he might not like me sometimes. Of course out of everyone, I still miss you the most, Grandma, and I cannot wait to tell you of my adventures in person._

* * *

Once they reached the top, they were greeted with an awe striking yet shuddersome view. The plants were flower heads as far as the eye could see. However, they still weren't exactly flowers, for they resembled the clamps in stuffed toy claw machines with thin cylindrical chimes as anthers and thick strings surrounding a needle as a pistil. The movement of the wind through their pedals caused the chimes to rub against the strings, sending a whimsical tune for all to hear. The boy genius's mouth gaped open in amazement. "This is astonishing! These biological organisms have been mechanically manifested. The question is: by whom?" he wondered aloud.

Above them, the orange sky transformed into a rich red and the plants' musical tune stopped. A deep gurgling noise arose from within the plants and their heads opened wider to reveal giant mouths with hundreds of teeth. Instead of a sweet lullaby, a piercing shrieking sound erupted from them and they began to sway this way and that. The kids screamed, frantically trying to descend one of the plant's stem. Once they had their feet on the ground, they ran for their lives towards the spacecraft. Between breaths, Jimmy yelled, "Gas planet! The music could have been some sort of behavioral mechanism to attract prey, so that during the night cycle they can feed!"

Cindy yelled back alongside him. "Oh yah what was your first clue, King Cranium? I knew this was a bad idea, RUN!"

They were almost at the ship when suddenly the ground gave way beneath their feet and the gang fell into a black abyss.

* * *

When Jimmy opened his eyes, he was exceptionally confused. The room was a bright white. Not only the lighting, but also the entire room was white, with its white walls and white furniture. At the foot of the couch he was lying on, a white jumpsuit was laid out neatly for him with a pair of black combat boots. He checked out the room with a perplexed look. There were no windows, only a white door. His mind started reeling at the numerous possibilities that could explain this situation, even the thought of death. That thought royally upset and worried him, and he vowed that if that were the case he would haunt Sheen forever. He sighed though, because even though he was angry with Sheen for blatantly ignoring his warnings, he blamed himself even more for not getting through to him. He slipped on the suit and approached the door cautiously. There was no handle or button. He hesitantly reached out and ever so slightly touched the door's surface. It sprung upwards and he leapt backwards. His jaw dropped when he saw what lay behind it: a massive underground metropolis.

Spacecrafts whizzed by, flights of moving stairs and air tubes hung from everywhere, fountains oozed purple liquid and lounges were spread here and there. He stood in disbelief when something touched his shoulder making him jump. He turned around to face some kind of cyborg. He opened his mouth to yell, but a wiry hand clamped over his face. It made some kind of static beeping noise, let go of him and wheeled away. Jimmy froze watching it. When the machine realized that Jimmy wasn't following, it went back over to Jimmy and nudged him in the direction it was going. Jimmy slowly obeyed the machine, walking down the gliding stairs and around several corners, to arrive at a lounge. He was incredibly relieved to see Cindy and Libby already there. He ran over to them, and when Cindy saw him, she quickly stood up to greet him. Jimmy ran right into her, scooping her into a tight hug. "Leaping Leptons, I'm glad to see you're okay," he breathed.

Cindy grinned widely. "Why Jimmy, that's so sweet. We were worried about you too," she giggled.

Jimmy snapped out of it at hearing her say the word 'we' and saw Libby on a couch smirking while giving him a little wave to remind him of her presence. He released Cindy, blushing furiously and pulling at the collar of his suit. "So umm…I-er…how are you guys? I see you two are sporting this culture's fabrications as well," he babbled.

Yanking at the material enveloping her, Libby scoffed, "Can you believe these things? These suits have absolutely no freedom of expression. Oh and where the heck is Carl?"

Right on cue, Carl emerged from around the corner with one of the machines shoving him along. Carl hummed in delight and in his hand was a container filled with the purple liquid. He gulped the stuff dry and waved at his friends. "Oh hey there you are guys! Have you tried this? It's so filling!" he smiled happily.

Jimmy, Cindy and Libby's faces crinkled in disgust, repulsed by the audacity that is Carl's stomach. Jimmy shook his head trying to picture Carl out. "Alright, so now that we're all together again, do any of you know what's going on?" he asked.

Cindy shook her head as well. "No, Libby and I were just talking about that, and we have no idea," she responded.

No one bothered asking Carl his opinion, because his answer was rather obvious. It was as if the fleshy robots heard the gang's wonders and closed in on the kids, forcing them into another white room. Behind them, the door slid closed and in front of them hung a large blank screen. The four friends looked around but there was nothing else in the room other than them. The screen zapped on and an image came into focus. Jimmy, Cindy, Carl and Libby gasped in shock at the enemy laughing before them: King Goobot.

* * *

Jimmy ran to the screen and slammed his fists against it. "I should've known we'd run into you again! How did you get out of the Cretaceous period?" he spat.

King Goobot sneered, "Always underestimating me, Mr. Neutron, but that will soon change."

Jimmy shot the alien scum his own look of loathing. "What in puking Pluto is this place and what are these mechanical creatures?" he demanded to know.

King Goobot was silent and simply watched the four children. Jimmy backed away from the screen and stood in front of his friends, unsure of how to deal with this situation. He had never seen Goobot at such ease, and it worried him. The King spoke quietly yet firmly.

"Why James, you are on the planet, Mariscus. Once upon a time, it used to be quite a ravishing place. As functional and pristine as possible, their empire reigned with an iron fist, not only their land, but also most of the galaxy. Their leader was rather greedy and paranoid though, and refused to settle for anything less than perfection. His power and worldly views made him grow mad, for it is impossible to rid of imperfection on an imperfect world. In a moment of utter insanity, an idea struck his mind. Virtual intelligence and machines were the closest to achieving the dream of possessing no error. He could choose which species were the strongest, and convert them. Therefore, what could be a better way to live than to be one of them?"

Jimmy and his friends looked at the fleshy mechanical things around them in horror and thought about the plants outside. They had a feeling they knew where this was going. Jimmy gulped, "Are you telling us that these are the people of Mariscus?"

Goobot smiled, "Precisely…but that is not all. They knew they couldn't convert their children, because their minds weren't mature enough to handle it, so they piled them in a rocket and jettisoned them to a life sustaining planet where they could grow and come back if they wished. However, when the children landed on the new planet, they couldn't come back. The ship had suffered unforeseen damages on the way, so they lived out their lives there. Do you know what that planet was?"

Jimmy opened his mouth to respond, but closed it. It couldn't be. Goobot leaned forward and glared at them from the other side of the screen.

"Earth," he concluded evilly.

Jimmy shook his head. "You're telling us that some of our ancestors were Mariscian?" he puzzled.

Goobot clapped, "Well done, James, of course that's what I'm saying. Their very blood courses through your very veins. That gene of 'perfection pursuing' will someday consume one of your people and your race shall fall to the same fate. You can't help it, deep down in each of you, you are too aware of your flaws and pick yourselves to pieces over them. It's your destiny."

Jimmy rolled his eyes. "Well our fate doesn't help explain what ended up happening to the Mariscians," he pressed.

Goobot sighed, "Unfortunately, they omitted their own intelligence during the conversion and embraced complete virtual intelligence, which was a grave mistake. For you see, computers cannot do anything unless they are programmed to do so, they cannot function without an operator. Sure, they do what they do with as little flaw as possible, but they have no control. That is where we came in. We assumed control and most of them served as…well quite a nice snack for Poultra. We knew there were more of them though, when we found the plans for their children. Therefore, we set off to find them and finally centuries later, your little message contraption lead us straight to you and your doom."

Jimmy yelled at the screen with fury. "You'll never get away with this Goobot!"

Goobot pouted, "Oh but Neutron I'm afraid I already have. Not only my people, but the next five planets as well, for we are all part of the same united federation. Under my lead, we will stop at nothing to vanquish that putrid home you call Earth, ta-ta!"

The screen went blank and the creatures, which they now knew to be Mariscians, began closing in on them. They had walked into the lion's den, and were hearing the roar.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Let Me Be Your Hero

Jimmy threw his hands up in the air in surrender and his friends did so as well. Jimmy tried reasoning with the approaching menace. "Attention Mariscians! We come in peace and mean you no harm! If you could please halt, we could continue this discussion diplomatically," he urged.

Cindy shrieked at him. "Neutron, so help me, you better stop these things or I will—"

Jimmy yelled back at her. "I'm trying Vortex, and it would be a lot easier to concentrate without you screaming at me!"

Carl wailed, "You're both constantly at each other's throats and I can't take it anymore! Just stop the fighting or we're going to die! Somebody do something, anything or we're going to die! This can't be the end of us! I didn't even get to finish Llamapalooza 2!"

Libby grabbed Carl by the shoulders and shook him. "Get a hold of yourself, Carl! You're not the only one freaking out here! We are all panicking, only some people aren't panicking enough! GET A MOVE ON JIMMY!" she shouted.

Before Jimmy could do anything, one of the Mariscians reached out and nicked his arm with a small blade. Jimmy winced and carefully touched his wound. Suddenly, the Mariscian who cut Jimmy started beeping and the others around them stopped. The kids looked around, unsure of what was happening. Jimmy stuttered, "I-it must have rec-recognized that we share a similar blood type since they're partially our ancestors and it m-might not want to kill us."

The creatures nudged the children out of the room and down the hall. The gang sighed with relief, until they saw what the next room held. A wired chair surrounded by a mechanical booth. They were going to convert them since they were compatible. Once Jimmy realized what was going on he cried to the others to run, but it was too late. They had grabbed Libby and dragged her into the room. The door shut and Cindy threw herself at the door banging on it with her fists. She frantically took Jimmy by the collar. "Jimmy, you've got to have one of your brain blasts now! Libby is in there and we will be next if we don't help her right now!" she demanded wildly.

Jimmy felt his anxiety rising. "Gosh, Cindy, I don't know what to do! This is beyond us! They are so much more advanced! I just can't—"

Without thinking, Cindy crushed her lips against Jimmy's and his eyes flew open. She pulled away from him and held his hands looking into his eyes. "Jimmy, if anyone or anything is more advanced it's you. I believe that you can do this and get us out of here. Think about where we are. This place is filled with all sorts of technology, like a giant lab. Now do your thing already!" she pleaded.

Jimmy nodded his head repeatedly in agreement, but wasn't really taking in her words. His jaw was slacked open, dumbfounded from her actions. Cindy could tell that he was still spaced out and was disappointed that her kiss hadn't snapped him back to reality. However, she had to admit that this reaction from him was somewhat pleasing as well. She snapped her fingers in front of his face. "Neutron, you big headed dope! Wake up and smell the roses or we are going to be turned into creepy robots! Now would be an excellent time for you to have one of your brainy moments!" she said, trying a different tactic.

Her grating voice cleared his head and he closed his eyes in thought. He remembered the shrieking plants' night cycle and Carl consuming the filling purple liquid. His eyes shot open.

"Brain Blast!"

Carl and Cindy jumped with joy and they huddled in a little circle. Hurriedly, Jimmy whispered, "You guys need to get to the storage vat of where they keep all of that purple liquid and load all of it onto the biggest ship you can find. I'll tell Goddard to meet you guys there to help you. He'll reroute the ship's main circuit in accordance to ours, so that we can control it from our ship."

Cindy tapped her chin. "How will he know where we are?" she asked.

Jimmy handed a locator to them as well as earplugs. "That chip holds a signal that will lead Goddard to you. As for the earplugs, put them in now. I'm going to transmit a key with my watch that will short circuit the Mariscians. I'll handle Libby and meet you guys back at the lounge where we met up," he explained.

He was fiddling with his watch when Cindy grabbed his arm.

"Be careful, Jimmy."

They smiled at each other and then Jimmy hit the signal. The machines crippled and smoked, and Carl and Cindy ran to their assigned position to do their part. Jimmy cut a hole through the door with his watch's laser beam and was astonished at the sight of Libby. She cried from the chair as metal prods circled her. Jimmy ran over to the consoles and shut it down. He breathed hard wondering if he was too late and if Libby was already one of them. Libby was silent and then she groaned. Jimmy turned away from the consoles to help her and gasped. There was a metal mask over her right eye and her left arm was mechanical. Libby blinked slowly and her head lulled towards the boy genius. "Jimmy? Am I going to be alright?" her small voice croaked.

He ran his hand through his hair in relief that she still possessed her mind and unclasped her from the chair. "You are going to be fine. I'm so relieved we made it in time. Libby, I'm so sorry you had to go through this, let's focus on getting out of here," he said.

Libby stood up, but her knees wobbled causing her to fall to the floor. Jimmy caught her arms and pulled her up. He threw her good arm around his shoulders and supported her like a crutch as they walked out of the room towards the lounge. Overhead, sirens began to blare. Jimmy thought back to Cindy and Carl's mission and figured they must have been discovered in the vat. They reached the lounge and Jimmy lowered Libby onto one of the couches. Cindy raced around the corner with Goddard at her heels. Carl panted a little farther behind. Cindy gasped when she saw Libby and crouched down by her side, tears welling in her eyes. "Libs, are you okay?" she asked.

Libby produced a faint smile and lightly grabbed her best friend's hand. "I'm still me, that's what counts," she replied.

Cindy stood up and studied Jimmy. His brow was creased and he was wringing his hands nervously. She turned towards him with her hands clasped behind her back and twisting her ankle anxiously on the ground in front on her. "Thanks, for you know, doing your thing," she praised.

Then her game face came on.

"Now get us the heck out of here," she ordered.

Jimmy curtly nodded his head. Goddard morphed into his fly cycle self and they helped Libby onto his back. Jimmy put his hands on his knees and cocked his head at Goddard. "Is the Ship still in place, boy?" he asked.

Goddard barked in agreement and wagged his tail. Jimmy patted his head.

"Good boy! Now let's blast."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: The Higher the Fewer

They ran as fast as they could, higher and higher up the moving stairs. Once they finally reached the top floor, they could hear the plants' muffled screams above them, indicating that they were very close. While Jimmy tried to catch his breath, he encouraged his friends,

"Do you hear that guys? We're almost back on the surface! We can make it, come on."

Carl clutched his own chest and coughed,

"Uh guys, I forgot my inhaler…do you think maybe I could ride Goddard the rest of the way?"

Cindy jabbed her index finger at Carl's chest,

"Do you honestly think we'd let you have Goddard? Libby is in ruins right now, so suck it up Wheezer or should I say Geezer!"

Jimmy placed himself in between the two,

"Alright knock it off you guys, we're almost there. Carl I figured you'd forget it ahead of time, so I put your spare inhaler inside Goddard's holding compartment."

Goddard's extendable hand removed the inhaler and handed it to Carl. Carl took a deep breath of it and put it in his pocket. Jimmy looked down the corridor and saw some doors,

"The stairs to the surface should be through one of them."

They approached the first door to their right and tapped it. The door sprung upwards revealing a significant mistake. The room was filled with Mariscians, which turned to stare at the gang with their glowing eyes. Jimmy spoke quietly through his teeth to the others,

"Nobody move."

The Mariscians were slowly beginning to turn away, not seeing them as a threat, until Carl's inhaler fell from his pocket and hit the ground. The Mariscians barreled towards them and the kids spun around to run down the hall. Jimmy quickly hit the next door and it sprung upward to show a narrow metal staircase heading straight for the surface. They were halfway up the stairs, but the Mariscians were fast and one of them was close to nipping Carl's ankle. Libby reached out in Carl's direction from Goddard's back to tell him to run faster, when something amazing happened. Her mechanical arm transformed into a blaster, which shot at the Mariscians behind Carl. Jimmy couldn't believe his eyes,

"Wow, Libby, that's incredible!"

Cindy couldn't believe Jimmy's nerve,

"Incredible? She's a mutant now for crying out loud, and it's entirely your fault!"

Jimmy winced, but Libby was actually smiling as she narrowed her eyes at the Mariscians,

"Actually Cin, that was pretty incredible, and this incredible new ability will not go to waste."

She shot at the Mariscians and the creatures fell back a little farther behind. Once they arrived at their spacecraft again, they chucked themselves inside and strapped on their seatbelts. This was going to be one heck of an exit. They lifted off the ground and into the sky. Beneath them, the plants shrieked and swayed as they cellular respired in the night. Jimmy flew over to where the vat was, which was covered by a glass dome. He signaled for the large cargo ship filled with the violet liquid to rise to the surface. It crashed through the glass, and Jimmy gawked at exactly how massive it was,

"How on Earth did you guys manage to fill that thing?"

Cindy flipped her bangs with a smug look on her face,

"Why anything is possible, Neutron."

Carl laughed, but it came out as more of a snort,

"Yah, especially when thing was already half filled with the stuff as gas. We just moved the crane holding the pump through the window of the ship and filled it even more through there."

Cindy stomped on Carl's foot, annoyed that the plump bespeckled with freckles boy had destroyed the element of surprise from their mission. Carl cried out in pain, but Jimmy didn't even notice and simply carried on with what he was doing. He pressed a button and the contents from the massive ship exploded all over the flowers. The flowers stopped churning and began to swell from engulfing the substance. It was too much for the flowers to handle and they began to burst, blocking the Mariscians' view of them in the sky from the ground, giving the kids a clean getaway. They rocketed back into space cheering over their victory. However, Jimmy, Cindy and Carl's joy began to die down as they regarded Libby.

The tranquilizers the Mariscians had injected her with were beginning to where off, and Libby began to feel the new part on her face. Some type of lens was situated over her right eye. She was about to cry, when her hand touched a tiny knob near her ear. She turned it and gasped. Her vision had been magnified through the lens and she could see for miles. She twisted it again and suddenly her surroundings were infrared. She kept twisting the tiny knob, astounded with the different sorts of new visual abilities, until she found her normal vision again. She turned to face the window and examined her new features through her reflection. The eyepiece was smooth and snug against her skin, specially crafted to mold that part of her perfectly. It actually didn't look all that bad. She lifted her hand and turned it to see different angles of it. It was a gleaming dark grey, but it was still her hand since it still held her coursing blood, tendons and tissues. It was simply remodeled, and as far as she knew, able to shoot blasters too. She looked up at her three friends gazing at her with worry. She cleared her throat,

"I think…this might not be so bad. Sure, I'll have to get used to the new look, but the parts's features are out of this world…literally. The only thing is…my parents are definitely going to know that we didn't go to summer camp."

Her friends smiled faintly and Cindy went over to hug her. Jimmy spoke up,

"Libby, I should be able to remove what they've done. It seems rather superficial, so the contraptions should be able to come off."

Libby shot Jimmy an amused look,

"Well, well looks like my superior features are already threatening a boy genius so much he wants to remove them. I'm just kidding, maybe I'll want them removed someday, but as of right now, fulltime Cyborg Chick is doing a number on part time Invisible Sister. "


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Star Light Star Bright

Jimmy stargazed while the rest of his crewmembers slept. Jimmy was determined to find Sheen. Goobot had said that the next six planets were part of a United Federation of something that Jimmy was not too keen to find out. At the moment, he had enough to deal with. However, that information had come to good use by informing Jimmy that if Sheen had landed on any of those planets, Goobot would have known about it and would have told them he had their friend captive. Therefore, there was only one more life-inhabiting planet, which Sheen could have landed on in this sector of space. That must have been the planet where they would find him, so Jimmy had plotted a course for it and they were steadily heading there.

His eyes were drooping from sleep, but there was something on his mind preventing him from falling into its clutches: Cindy Vortex. His brain kept reeling back to when she had kissed him outside the conversion chamber. Even though it was short, she had felt warm and snug against him, and her hair always had that bewitching jasmine scent that he couldn't get enough of. He simply couldn't stop thinking about it.

He was so drawn to her, that all else seemed to fade away, leaving only her very essence to consume him. It didn't matter if they were flirting or arguing, either one left his brain solely focused on her. Of course, he was attracted to her, but there was much more to it, which both terrified yet exhilarated him. It was a _need_ for her.

Jimmy opened his eyes, the sleep leaving due to his epiphany. He thought back to their moments in class and some of their adventures, causing a deeper understanding to rise from his consciousness. It was all a cry for her attention. Outshining her was never really the answer; it was all about trying to impress her…well most of the time. She had a power over him that made him strive to be even better and try even harder. She was a kind of motivation that he needed. Jimmy wondered how she felt about him. She could be so unreadable sometimes, sending such mixed signals. Being with her was like rolling a dice and there was no way of knowing whether it was going to land on Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde. Like a two-sided coin, there was a side to her that could be so gentle as well as a side to her that could be so infuriating. Just when he would get the idea that she might feel the same way, they would end up back where they started. It was an impossible roundabout, but in a way, that was exactly what Jimmy loved. She was a problem that couldn't be solved, constantly challenging his big brain. He wondered what his friends thought of their relationship, and his thoughts switched to Carl. He had seen their kiss with the Mariscians as well as their kiss after the news show. That caused Jimmy to feel a little disturbed, knowing that Carl had witnessed so much.

Jimmy shook his head though, trying to reason with himself. He was probably overtired and should probably sort out these thoughts in the morning. Just when he was about to finally fall asleep, something tapped his shoulder. Jimmy stirred, lulled his head to the side and murmured without looking at who was there,

"Carl, I told you your fish snackums are in the back compartment on the second shelf."

It was actually Cindy, who had tried to wake Jimmy in hopes of talking, but after hearing his sleepy response, she decided against it. Cindy sat in the passenger seat on the other side of him and watched the stars. He had hoped to hear his thoughts on their kiss and to clear up that her kiss was only meant to ground him to reality of course.

She glanced over at the boy genius and thought about how peaceful he looked in his slumber. She wondered what kinds of things his big brain dreamed about and if she might be in those dreams. Cindy highly doubted that she could have a presence within his subconscious though, because of how logical he was. In fact, he may not even dream at all, considering his lack of creativity. She had never stopped wondering whose brain had dreamt of them walking down a country lane and kissing. Cindy had no way of knowing who dreamt of it. Her dreams did tend to have a creative spin to them, so it could have been her. On the other hand, she didn't know what Jimmy's dreams consisted of, so it could have been him. That stressed her out a little, for if his dreams actually were of mathematical equations and scientific adventures, Jimmy would think that she was the one who dreamt of them together. Not being able to know annoyed her tremendously.

Then an idea flooded her head and she gasped, astonished that she hadn't come up with it sooner. Cindy quietly got up and tiptoed to the ship's back room. There, she unzipped Jimmy's bag and rummaged through until she found what she was looking for: The Neutron Encephalo Synthesizer. She crept back over to Jimmy, knelt beside him and carefully lifted the invention to his head. At first, all she could hear was static and thought that perhaps he truly didn't dream, but slowly voices started filtering through and she strained to hear them. Jimmy was clearly speaking to someone,

"What motivated you to strike a light sensitive beam with electromagnetic radiation causing an electron to be ejected from its surface?"

An older voice responded,

"Well I wanted to prove that light could exist as tiny particles, so I came up with the Quantum Theory of Light and conducted that experiment, which proved my thought process. Then I was able to propose that light and electromagnetic radiation did exist as particles, which I called 'the photon'."

Jimmy was clearly in awe,

"Wow, Albert Einstein, that's simply genius. Did you know that modern scientists have been proving your Theory of Relativity? Someday, I hope to make certain advancements upon it myself."

Cindy deadpanned. The boy genius was actually dreaming of having a conversation with Einstein. This told her nothing. Sure, he was capable of dreaming of others, but it was still exceptionally scientific. When she began listening again, she had clearly missed something, because Einstein's voice seemed reassuring,

"I'm positive that invention will be more than enough to impress her."

Cindy did a double take. He was dreaming about a girl! She got even closer to Jimmy, completely riddled with anticipation when a voice broke the ship's silence,

"Jimmy, where's my fish snackums again?"

She whipped around, gnawing on her own hand to stifle her shock and squinted through the darkness to see Carl. He was rubbing his eyes and yawning, so he might not have seen her yet. Cindy took this opportunity to slide the invention under the passenger seat and leap into it. She pretended to be asleep as Carl wondered over to them. He talked to himself,

"Hmm… I thought I saw someone up over here. I shouldn't have watched those late night llama videos, my vision is so blurry. Guess I'll check by myself."

As Carl walked away, leaving Cindy to slump with relief, amazed with her luck at not being caught. Unfortunately, her newfound discovery only gave her a different kind of angst. On one hand, she now knew that Jimmy could've been the one to dream of the country lane as well, but now she didn't know which girl occupied his current dream. It could range from his mother to Betty Quinlan. She huffed with irritation, because now she would never know thanks to Carl.

Suddenly, the navigational scanner started beeping and Cindy looked up to see a strange planet, which seemed as if it had a large tree stump piercing straight through it, come into view. The beeping caused Jimmy to wake up and stretch. He looked up to see the planet and grinned. When he turned to the navigational scanner, he was startled to see Cindy,

"Cindy? I thought you were sleeping over there."

Cindy stuttered,

"I was sleeping…but uh…the beeping woke me up first and I came over to see what was up. What, I'm not allowed to move? It's not like that specific seat has my name written on it you know!"

Jimmy rolled his eyes over her snooty antics, but smiled as they approached the planet's atmosphere,

"Well what's up, is that I think we may have finally found Sheen."

* * *

**It's me here, just wanted to thank everyone who has reviewed my story so far. It helps me know how my story is being viewed from an audience stand point, and if there is anything I should elaborate more on in future chapters or add in things you would like to know more of:) It's great to see that everyone is enjoying it so far too, it's great motivation! **


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Olly Olly Oxen Free

Jimmy slowly lowered the ship onto the bizarre planet and it landed with a thud. They filed out one by one, this time with more of a cautious viewpoint rather than one of bewilderment, and brought Goddard with them as well. Around them was some kind of gray canyon. It walls crumbled every now and then, with large boulders breaking loose to tumble deep within its crevices. Looming over their ship to the side was one massive daisy. Libby stuck her hip out and waved her hand in front of herself,

"Okay, this big flower thing is getting old. It better not do anything funky."

Jimmy tilted his head to regard the once again large plant,

"I wouldn't worry, Libby. The odds of that daisy happening to be exactly like the others we encountered are fairly slim."

Cindy scoffed and walked straight up to the giant flower,

"Oh please, Neutron, like we're ever safe around you no matter what the odds are. What are you prepared to do about it if it does want to eat us, huh? Well I'm not just going to stand around and watch all hell break loose again!"

With that, she began to kick at the wide bottom of the flower's stem, muttering things about the stupidity of flora, big heads, dreams and fish snackums in the distance. Jimmy edged closer to Libby with his quizzical gaze remained on the raging Cindy,

"Um…according to my tricorder, the air here is slightly thicker than Earth, which is what allows the excessive vegetation growth, but that should have no effect on the nervous system that would cause the development of any sort of erratic behavior."

Libby watched Cindy too, but with an impassive look,

"Yah she usually has these kinds of…episodes when she's upset about something."

Jimmy narrowed is eyes at the blonde girl now clawing at the dirt at the base of the stem,

"Hmm…oh I see, I think I know what happened."

Libby raised a brow at him,

"Oh really?"

Jimmy nodded with utmost seriousness,

"Of course…she's overtired. When I woke up this morning due to the scanner's alarm, she was already awake and in the seat next to me. I woke up right when the scanner went off, so there was no way that she could have gotten there from her seat in the back in that short of an amount of time. The poor girl must not have gotten any sleep and had already wandered there before hand."

Libby shook her head in disagreement. As Cindy's best friend, she knew the girl inside and out. Cindy had spent many all-nighters studying to try to beat Jimmy's grades and she never went crazy in the morning, only slightly more grouchy. Something had frustrated her, and she was sure that she was going to found out what eventually. Jimmy didn't see Libby's gesture though, because he was sidetracked by a quivering Carl poking his shoulder,

"Hey guys, there's this weird echoing noise coming from down there and it's really creeping me out."

They called for Cindy to come join them again, and then stood as still and silent as possible. Sure enough, there was a dull booming noise, and it seemed to be coming closer. The gang looked at each other and ran behind a boulder, deciding to take evasive action so as not to take any risks of being seen by whatever it was. They pressed themselves against the rock's surface as the ground began to shake slightly. When they heard what sounded like yodeling, Jimmy peered around the rock to see a humungous reptile-like creature standing by the daisy. Jimmy quickly dipped back behind the rock to shush his friends. The creature sensed Jimmy's movement though, and began to approach the rock. Jimmy gritted his teeth, Libby squeezed her eyes shut, Cindy chewed her lip and Carl cowered in fear taking large gulps of his inhaler. When the giant beast's footsteps stopped abruptly behind the rock, they didn't move a muscle and screamed when a blue girl jumped down right in front of them. Carl fainted immediately and Libby bent down to see if he was all right. Jimmy and Cindy stared at the girl with wide eyes. Her long blue hair was tied in a braid and a leather band with an orange gem was resting on her forehead. She was wearing a yellow dress with a golden hue and holding a long wooden staff. She curtsied before them,

"Hi, I am Aseefa, of the Glimmorians."

Jimmy cleared his throat and took a step towards the blue girl,

"Hi, I am Jimmy Neutron, and these are my friends Cindy, Libby and Carl, of the planet Earth."

Aseefa's curious magenta eyes lit up as she leaned on her wooden staff,

"The Emperor's brave adviser is also of Earth and will be very pleased to see others of his kind! You may ride with me and I will take you to him."

Jimmy thought about that. The royal adviser of this planet was from Earth; therefore, he would know if Sheen were here too. He was about to accept her invitation when he remembered she mentioned riding something. He was about to ask what when the creature stepped out from the other side of the boulder. The gang screamed again and Carl, who was just coming out of it, fainted again. Aseefa grabbed hold of the creature and jumped up onto it in a spiraling motion, landing on the creatures head. She scratched the surface and it laid down happily. She laughed,

"This is Chock-Chock and he is my Chocktow. He means you no harm. Come join me and we will be on our way."

Jimmy nodded smiling, and was about to start climbing the Chock-Tow, when Cindy grabbed his sleeve yanking him back down. Jimmy fell backwards clumsily on his bottom and Cindy stood in front of him with her arms crossed, giving Aseefa a cold glare while pointing at the beast underneath her,

"How can we trust you? What if you plan to feed us to less domesticated members of his kind?"

Aseefa gave her an amused look,

"I guess you'll just have to take a chance, or fend off everything that Zeenu has to offer on your own."

Aseefa sat atop the Chocktow with her legs crossed examining her fingernails. Cindy huffed and turned to see her friends looking at her nervously. She didn't want to be blamed if they happened to be attacked by anything horrifying on their own, so she relented with a grumbling sigh,

"Fine, we'll go with you, but I'll have you know that I am trained in quite a variety of martial arts."

Aseefa grinned,

"That is good news to the ear. Perhaps you may train with us Glimmorian warriors during your stay."

Jimmy began to climb back up the Chocktow, while Cindy fumed. Libby patted her on the shoulder before following Jimmy. Soon enough, they were all on and seated behind Aseefa, except for Cindy. Aseefa rolled her eyes,

"Are you going to accompany your friends or not?"

Cindy shouted up at her in a mocking tone,

"Maybe I won't 'accompany my friends'. Who's to say I can't handle what's around here on my own. I'll just be on my way, and meet you guys there."

Cindy spun on her heal and stormed off towards the entrance to the canyon's caves.

Libby called out to her,

"Girl, you better come back or you are going to get yourself killed!"

Cindy gave no response as she entered the caves. She could do this. Her hesitant lip biting turned into a confident grin. If anyone was going to do any type of impressing, it was going to be her conquering this strange land and showing Jimmy that she was the only option. Betty Quinlan would be out of the picture…at least if Jimmy had done as she had told him to, and had gotten rid of all of his photos of her.

Aseefa shrugged and cried out to Chock-Chock to get going. Jimmy yelled for Aseefa to stop. He stood up, walked down the Chocktow's back and slid down his tail back to the ground. Goddard followed him back down. He called up to his friends,

"I'm going to go after her and meet you guys there. Good luck with finding Sheen!"

Aseefa gasped and yelled down to him,

"You all must be the friends that the adviser Sheen speaks of!"

Jimmy, Libby and Carl's jaws dropped with surprise. The three of them spoke in unison,

"Sheen is the royal adviser?"

Aseefa nodded excitedly,

"Yes! He will be overjoyed that you have come for him. We must hurry to him!"

Their stunned faces were quickly replaced with relief from finally finding Sheen. Chock-Chock reared up, anxious to go, but Jimmy called out one more time,

"Aseefa, can you just give me the directions as to how to actually get there."

Aseefa answered happily,

"Sure thing, Jimmy Neutron of Earth! You must go through the caves, past the Valley of the Unpleasant Holes, through the Mountains of Painful Torture, past the Meadows of Misery and you will finally reach the Royal Palace."

Jimmy gulped and cursed Cindy's stubbornness under his breath. He computed the coordinates in Goddard and called back to his friends,

"All right, bye guys! See you there in a blast!"

Turning around, he added in a lower voice so they couldn't hear,

"That is if I don't die as soon as I leave you."

His friends wished him good luck in return and they parted their separate ways. Once his friends were out of sight, Jimmy growled and kicked some rocks. He looked at Goddard walking beside him and droned in a sarcastic tone,

"Hey boy, remind me to give Cindy a nice little chat about the buddy system when we find her. Oh wait, that won't be necessary when her buddy is coming to give her much more than just grief!"

He stomped off in just as much of a rage as Cindy did. Behind him, Goddard trailed slowly, his ears drooping with the knowledge that a lot of arguing was about to take place.

* * *

King Goobot thrummed his golden shears for fingers impatiently against his throne. He was awaiting feedback from the Mariscians regarding the destruction of Jimmy Neutron and his annoying little friends. How long could it possibly take to eradicate four insufferable children? Once he had that out of the way, he could then move on to greater priorities. Just when he was about to crack, a yolkian guard walked in with a transmission. King Goobot hastily grabbed the tablet from his hands cackling about it being about time. He pressed the play icon, and his evil grimace slowly dissipated as he processed its contents. On screen, was a stoic Mariscian, relaying the news about Neutron's escape during the conversion. His eyes twitched as his body trembled with absolute fury. The King's voice boomed throughout his lair,

"I said to destroy them, not to convert them. I didn't want them as slaves, I wanted them wiped from existence. WHY MUST THE UNIVERSE BE SO INCOMPETENT SO AS TO NOT UNDERSTAND THAT?"

He collapsed on the ground, and his guards raced over to him in effort to fan him, even though his glass shell prevented him from feeling such a thing. He slowly floated back up with exhaustion,

"This is it. I am done with this constant chagrin. I refuse to play this game of cat and mouse any longer."

King Goobot started to leave, but one of his guards stopped him, holding out the tablet to him,

"But Sir, there is still more, which you have not seen."

Not in the mood for any interruptions during his dramatic monologue and leave of despair, he raised his hand releasing a blast towards the guard. The guard yet out a yelp before disintegrating into a pile of green ash. The tablet tumbled to the ground, and Goobot lazily picked it up. He continued watching it, his eyes glazing over the screen, when something caught his attention. The Mariscians had managed to imbed a tracking device in one of the children. A maniacal grin began to etch itself across his armoured shell. This was the universe telling him that his vengeance was not yet over. The bigheaded boy and his pesky friends were still within his grasp. Only this time, he would play his cards right and bring this matter to the Void. He and only he would be able to completely eliminate this dilemma once and for all.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Stranger Things Have Happened

It was about a day's journey to the Royal Palace, but Chock-Chock was fast, and with so many sights to see, the time simply flew by. Zeenu was quite an exquisite place. Libby and Carl gaped in wonder over the land's odd blend of colours and large variety of life forms. When Aseefa stopped Chock-Chock at the gates, it took a moment for Carl and Libby to realize that they were already there. Libby jumped down and stood with her hands on her hips surveying her surroundings with her new vision. She turned to the giant dinosaur-like creature and smiled,

"You know, I think I'd like a Chocktow of my own. I could get used to that kind of view. All we'd need is a little road music next time."

Carl gulped, looking at the distance between him up on the Chocktow and the ground below, seemingly growing. His knees wobbled as he rose slightly, but naturally, his foot slipped causing him to stumble off the Chocktow and fall, landing on his scapula. He shakily got back up, rubbing his back,

"Oww…I still prefer the thought of having a llama."

Aseefa laughed and jumped down from the Chocktow in perfect formation,

"A Chocktow is not for everyone, Carl. It requires a lot of discipline and courage to train one."

Turning to Libby, she added,

"I believe that you possess such a character. I have a feeling if you were Zeenuwian, we would already be friends. Perhaps I can teach you a few things about Chocktows before you go."

Libby was surprised at her words. As Cindy's best friend, she was never seen as the strong warrior type, as Cindy usually ruled that domain. She regarded Aseefa carefully. Aseefa stood with her feet planted firmly in front of her, her arms dropped to her sides innocently. Libby read the stance in correspondence to her personality, open yet guarded and adventurous yet loyal. Her head was cocked to the side, a warm grin spread across her face awaiting Libby's response. She seemed rather genuine, an attribute which highly drew Libby to others. Libby mirrored her smile and shifted, deciding to give Aseefa a chance at friendship,

"Thanks, I think I'd be down for that."

The three of them began to walk through the gates, when a familiar voice sounded from behind them. They cast a glance over their shoulders to see a greenish slug-like creature about their height trying with all its might to wiggle itself up to their pace. It was wearing a red shirt with a yellow collar, along with four eyed black framed glasses. It waved as its squirming body arrived at a stop beside them. It panted for breath for a second before speaking to Aseefa,

"Why hello, Aseefa, isn't it such a lovely day! I was just making my way over to see Mr. Nesmith and Sheen when I saw Chock-Chock and thought I'd say hi. Are you going to see them too?"

The creature had its arms outstretched as if giving the weather a warm embrace. Its eyes were closed in happiness, but when it opened them, it was shocked to see Libby and Carl. Aseefa opened her mouth to introduce them, when it pushed past her, slowly slugging towards them with its arm reaching out to poke them,

"Ouh, who are you? Aseefa are these your friends? That's not very nice of you to never have shown them to us. Ouh, they kind of look like Sheen! You should really show Sheen your friends, Aseefa. Ouh, this one's hurt! Why didn't you say anything about that, Aseefa?"

It stood in front of Carl who was still rubbing his back and scooped him into a tight hug. The jostled squeezing somehow managed to click Carl's scapula back into place, and when it let go, Carl let out a sigh of relief. Carl looked at the creature amazed and stuttered,

"Wow, I feel so much better now! Thanks, Mr…uhm…uh…"

The creature laughed, unaware that the hug had rearranged Carl's spine,

"Well you know what they say, affection is the best medicine! The name's Doppy, always around to put a smile on people's faces! You know, I myself had very frequent back pain, but then I saw this amazing doctor guy named Dorkus. You know what he did; he ripped my spine right out. Look at me now! I have such freedom of mobility and no pain. Let me take you to him. Trust me he works wonders! Maybe he'll do the same for you!"

Carl's eyes widened in horror and he leaned away from the creature,

"You…you want to…remove my spine?"

Doppy waved his hand in a slashing motion, signaling that it wasn't that big of deal,

"Pshh, I was frightened too at first, but now I feel like a new person! I still visit my spine everyday too. It's like having a new friend. If you're really against it, I'm sure he can give you something else to rid of the pain though."

Carl's body became less tense at hearing that,

"You…you really think so?"

Doppy smiled happily,

"Of course, my friend, I can take you to him right now!"

They linked arms, and Doppy turned to Libby. Her body was slack and her jaw was dropped open staring at them. Doppy studied Libby and asked, drawing a little closer to her,

"Are you in pain too?"

Very surely, but slowly Libby shook her head. Doppy edged closer to Carl, whispering,

"Is she uhm…still with us?"

Carl laughed, doing the exact same slashing motion with his hand that Doppy did to wave off the issue,

"Naw, that's Libby. She's probably just excited to meet new people. Come on, let's go!"

Doppy and Carl walked off towards the palace with their arms still linked. Aseefa was watching them with utter bafflement. She spoke to Libby, still watching them,

"Is it just me, or do they share remarkable similarities?"

She turned to Libby, to see that she too was watching the duo walking up ahead, still with dazed eyes and a hanging jaw. Aseefa waved her hand in front of Libby's face and the girl jerked, snapping out of it. Libby shook her head stunned,

"D-did you just see them? That…I think that…that might have been the weirdest thing I've ever seen!"

Aseefa laughed,

"Welcome to planet Zeenu, Libby of Earth. I can assure you that much stranger things are still to come."

* * *

With one hand grazing the wall of the cave and the other having its nails chewed, Cindy made her way through what seemed like a never ending labyrinth of underground tunnels. It was very dark and she strained to make out the path merely a few feet in front of herself. Her anger had subsided around the fifteenth tunnel entrance, dulling into an uneasy pit in the bottom of her stomach. The feeling had inched its way through her, like icy tendrils clutching at her chest causing her breath to quicken silently. At the faintest of noise, her heart would pound against her rib cage as she either froze or leapt in place. Her eyes flittered back and forth trying to dodge the shadows looming against the rock walls, sending chills rippling down her spine. Her own mind had slowly begun to betray her as well, screaming at her for leaving the security of the group and letting her pride dictate her actions.

She cursed herself for her stubbornness, and inability to withstand the possibility of not having the upper hand over her peers all of the time. She sighed, because she couldn't help herself for being that way. With Jimmy and his intellect, Libby with her robotic features and musical ability, and Carl with his lovable and innocent nature, where did that leave her on the chain of superior qualities? She knew that she was being too hard on herself and that she had plenty of great qualities as well, such as her athletic ability. However, after witnessing Aseefa's acrobats and courageous personality, that inner confidence started to ebb away, as she felt like she might be taking a back seat compared to everyone else.

Her thoughts drifted back to Jimmy though, and she hung her head in despair. The only reason she had decided to go through this route was to not only prove to herself that she didn't take the back seat, but to prove it to him as well. It certainly wasn't her brightest of ideas though, because she didn't even know where she was going. Without any directions, she wouldn't even recognize her destination either, since she had never been here before. Cindy considered how perhaps it wasn't too late to head back and return to the ship. Having a photographic memory such as hers, wouldn't make it too hard for her find her way back. Cindy would just create a little white lie as to why she had turned back.

Hesitantly, she finally turned around and started walking in the opposite direction. Heading back through the third to last tunnel entrance she went through she was suddenly stumped. Before her laid four separate tunnels and she had no idea which one she had gone through. She dropped her forehead into the palm of her hand, dreading what was happening. She sat down in the corner and drew in her knees to her chest, fiddling with the end of her ponytail. She could just imagine what Neutron would say once she saw him again. There was no way she could fool him as to why she turned back, he would see right through her. Not only would he probably think she was a failure, but she would never hear the end of it. He would have a field day with her failed mission. She had set herself up with at least a year's worth of verbal ammunition from him. Cindy balled up her fist and punched the ground beside her. She could picture that smug look of his whenever he would get too arrogant, his voice dripping with conceit,

"We told you to come back, but as usual little Miss Vortex couldn't resist the creation of a spectacle, and had to go gambling with the natural selection of an unknown environment."

She imagined herself, quick to snap a retort,

"At least I make a spectacle! You're an actual spectacle with that giant head of yours."

To which Jimmy would step towards her with his shoulders hitched upwards and arms thrown up in aggravation,

"Oh see, why do you have to go there? Always spitting out insults that revolve around physical appearances, can your smaller brain not come up with anything new?"

To which she would scowl, blowing her bangs upwards in frustration and rearing back her fist,

"Oh please, you live in today's age. There's a reason the oldies are called classics. There's no need to come up with anything 'new', but I'll give you 'new' if you want it! How about a 'new' face, Nerdtron?"

To which Jimmy would yell,

"We told her to come back, but as usual little Miss Vortex couldn't resist the creation of a spectacle, and had to go gambling with the natural selection of an unknown environment."

Cindy was yanked from her thoughts and blinked. Neutron would never repeat himself, but that voice hadn't come from her thoughts. Cindy looked up to see a small light coming from within one of the tunnels. She squinted and could make out the light as the two eyes of a dog along, beside it a fudge-headed boy. Cindy gasped, her eyes widening in alarm. Neutron couldn't see her like this! All huddled in a corner lost in her thoughts. She had to think…think…think…

They had been looking for Cindy for an hour now, and Goddard felt as if he could spontaneously combust from listening to Jimmy's incessant ranting about the hard-headed blonde. Goddard had tried reasoning through computed suggestions, whining and barking, but nothing seemed to be able to penetrate his big head. As far as Cindy Vortex was concerned, logic never failed to pack up and leave the building. Jimmy ran his hand through the back of his hair for the umpteenth time,

"Any sign of her yet, boy?"

Goddard checked his readings and was surprised to view confirmation. She was about twenty feet from them. He had been so close to short-circuiting from his master's complaining that he had forgotten to verify the scanner. The robotic dog leapt while barking a happy agreement and ran towards the signal. Jimmy was startled to see how excited Goddard was to find her and ran after him,

"Gosh boy, you could've said something a little earlier."

Goddard slowed down once they had reached her. As soon as Jimmy set his eyes on her, all of the anger flooded from his system. Before them, she laid sprawled out in a little heap in the middle of the path. Jimmy knelt beside her, studying her. Her hair was disheveled and she had patches of dirt scattered across her limbs. Jimmy called for Goddard to take her vitals, but before Goddard could do so, she coughed and her eyes fluttered open,

"N-Neutron?"

Jimmy leaned over her, one hand planted on the ground next to her head, the other clasped around her limp arm,

"Puking Plutonium, Cindy, what in Einstein's name happened to you?"

Cindy lulled her head to the side and laid the hand of her other arm over her forehead,

"Oh Jimmy, I was coping perfectly well on my own, when this beastly monster came out of nowhere and attacked me. I fought back as hard as I could, and let me tell you the creature looks way worse than me, but I seemed to have nonetheless fallen unconscious."

Cindy moved her hand from her forehead to cover her eyes, feigning horror. She chewed the inside of her lip and prayed that the boy genius would buy her story. Jimmy got up and extended his hand to help her stand. She carefully got up and faced him. She could see his brow furrowed in concentration processing her story and she could feel the sweat of stress running down her own brow. Finally, Jimmy narrowed his eyes and looked ahead down the path,

"Well we're about half way through the caves, so we should keep our eyes peeled. Goddard, defense mode!"

A whirring noise sounded from Goddard and he barred his teeth, moving ahead of them with his tail pointed and his body lowered to the ground. Jimmy followed and Cindy walked alongside him. She cleared her throat,

"Uhm…Neutron, where are the others?"

Jimmy glared at her,

"No doubt, already with Sheen by now."

Cindy raised her eyebrows,

"So, you're the only one who followed me?"

Jimmy rolled his eyes,

"And it's a pretty good thing I did, considering how we found you."

Cindy couldn't help but feel a blush creeping up her cheeks. He did care about her. Jimmy noted her silence and stammered,

"Well, it was a given that you would get yourself into some sort of trouble and since I have the most experience with unknown terrains, it only made sense that I should be the one to retrieve you."

Cindy scowled,

"I'll have you know I didn't run into any trouble at all and I am perfectly capable to taking care of myself!"

Jimmy stopped and looked at her quizzically,

"I thought you said you encountered some kind of monster. I don't know about you, but that rather files itself under 'trouble'."

Cindy' eyes widened slightly. Her act was falling apart at the seams, due to her own defensive nature. She laughed nervously,

"Oh pshh, that was no trouble at all. Defeating that thing was a piece of cake."

An amused smile crept up Jimmy's face,

"Oh really? Then why were you 'unconscious'?"

Cindy stuttered and tried to speak, but there was no getting out of this. Jimmy already pieced together her fake little puzzle,

"You were faking weren't you? You saw me coming and you didn't want me to give you any kind of grief for leaving, so you thought if you toyed with my emotions, I would forget about what you did. Well let me tell you I didn't forget and that valiant effort of yours was, dare I say, rather pathetic."

Cindy scoffed,

"Like I care what you think anyway, Freakbrain! You however, do care what I think, as you have just admitted to having some kind of emotions towards me."

Jimmy shook his head,

"What? You are completely taking things out of context, Vortex! This isn't about me, it's about you, obviously caring what I think, given that you tried to stage a fake attack. If anything, I would say that such actions correspond to you having some kind of emotions towards me."

Cindy scoffed, shooting back an angry verbal retaliation. The pair continued to argue, their irritated comebacks echoing throughout the tunnels.

* * *

Goobot pleaded with utmost sincerity,

"But sir, you have no idea what these little rascals are capable of! They pose a significant threat towards our empire and should be dealt with immediately!"

The Void sighed impatiently,

"King Goobot, have you no shame? I do not deal with matters as puny as these. I don't care if they blew up that hideous chicken of yours. If you ask me, its elimination has only helped your people grow as a race."

Goobot clawed at the glass shell encompassing him, wanting to rip himself to pieces over the humiliation. Once he had come up with the idea to get the Void involved, he had thought his plan was foolproof. However, he should have expected the sheer volume of persuasion it would take to convince the Void of its importance. Goobot had departed as quickly as possible to the Void's home planet, a giant ball of black gas with a green hue; red rings encircling it. The planet's surface was completely barren, apart from an enormous palace, its sleek black walls haunting amongst the smoke. None of its menacing exterior had managed to cause Goobot to reconsider his plan though. He would succeed in retrieving the help of the Void no matter what it took. Now the Void sat before him in his mighty throne gazing at the ceiling with boredom. The Void was very tall and exceptionally thin, taking the form of a three dimensional shadow. It had two arms, which extended into giant claws, resting on the arms of its throne. It didn't seem to have any legs, its lower body curving into funneling shadow. Its head had an oval shape, the top spreading into long needle-like spikes. In the centre laid only two white orbs for eyes, that kept falling upon Goobot and bouncing back to the ceiling. The Void sighed once more,

"Besides, humans are still so primitive and have even named their own galaxy 'The Milky Way'. I hardly see that as threatening."

Goobot decided to take a different approach,

"But Sir, this boy is able to create anything he desires with all of his technology. It's only a matter of time before he starts mapping out the entire universe with all of his methods of travel in spaceships, time devices and portals to other dimensions—"

The Void leaned forward, looming over Goobot,

"Did you say that he can travel to other dimensions?"

Goobot shivered but stood his ground,

"Y-yes good Sir, n-not naturally as you can, but he can nonetheless travel almost anywhere."

The Void was silent, and then reached for Goobot, a thick black tendril curving around his glass shell. Goobot gulped as the Void rose from its throne and began to pace. It chuckled,

"This…peaks my interest. Bring me this boy. I would like to have a word with him."

The front of Goobot's armour turned into a dauntless smile,

"Of course Sir, I'll get right on it."


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Hello and Goodbye

Sheen folded his arms behind his head and propped up his feet on the ship's steering wheel. He belted out annoying Ultra Lord Songs, lounging in the broken ship's cockpit while Nesmith lay underneath the ship fixing things that Sheen chose to ignore. Nesmith bumped his head as he rolled out from under the ship to speak to Sheen,

"Ow, uhm…Sheen do you mind keeping it down? I feel a headache coming on."

Sheen rolled his eyes,

"All right, mister grumpy pants. I will never understand why you can't appreciate the soulful tunes of Ultralord."

Nesmith mumbled,

"Oh believe me. It's not the tunes; it's the voice singing them."

Sheen smiled as he gazed up at the sky. It was a typical Zeenu afternoon. The sky was a calm blue, scattered with pink clouds. He thought he could make out one in the form of his super purple suited hero, but he shook his head. Sheen wondered when the next time he would see an episode of Ultralord would be, which made his smile fall a little. As much as he loved Zeenu, he really missed Earth and grew impatient to make the journey back. He leaned over the side of the ship, and dangled upside down to view Nesmith. Nesmith was busy writing some kind of calculations down on a notepad. Sheen grinned crazily,

"So my monkey friend, how are we doing today?"

Nesmith meant to glare at him unamused for refusing to acknowledge his ape nature, but couldn't help but smile when he saw Sheen's aloof position. Nesmith sighed,

"We've still got a long way to go, Sheen. I'm trying my best, but remember that I'm doing this all on my own."

Sheen sighed and crawled back into his seat. He closed his eyes and imagined being back home. From behind his eyelids, he could hear Doppy approaching the ship talking to someone. Doppy was always so cheerful and talkative. Sheen liked Doppy, but he constantly reminded him of a certain friend back home, which saddened him. He listened to Doppy speaking to Nesmith,

"Why hello, Mr. Nesmith, isn't it a lovely day today?"

Nesmith chuckled from under the ship,

"As is every day according to you, Doppy."

Sheen felt Doppy lean against the ship, for the ship swayed from his weight,

"Hey, do you know where Sheen is? I've got a surprise for you guys!"

Sheen rolled his eyes inside of his head. Doppy always had a surprise for them. If he was trying to show them his spine one more time, he was going to scream. He heard Nesmith groan and roll out from the ship. Instead of hearing Nesmith's usual sarcastic wonder for whatever Doppy had, Sheen heard him gasp. What happened next surprised him even more, for Nesmith was shouting with glee,

"Oh my goodness gracious! How good it is to see you! How did you get here? Is one of you some kind of genius? Please tell me that you are familiar with at least some kind of mechanics!"

A voice that sounded exactly like Doppy's rung out,

"Oh my gosh, you're a talking monkey! That is amazing! Does Sheen know about you? He would flip out over how awesome you are."

Sheen eyes flew open. Doppy already knew that Sheen and Mr. Nesmith were friends, so that could only mean…

Sheen peered over the side of the ship and felt a grin spreading out so wide across his face that it hurt. Below him stood not only Mr. Nesmith, Doppy and Aseefa, but also Carl and Libby. Sheen flew out of the ship and landed on Carl. He leapt up still gripping Carl in a tight bear hug. Sheen yelled,

"You've come for me! Oh great heavens above, they've come for me!"

Carl choked from the lack of oxygen and Sheen released him slightly. Carl gasped for breath as he hugged Sheen back,

"Boy, are we glad to see you! We've been looking all over for you. Here, I brought you Ultralord crackers! I-I kind of ate about three quarters of them, but there's still some left."

Sheen smiled at him with tears in his eyes,

"You are the bestest friend ever, Carl."

Behind them, Libby cleared her throat. Sheen turned to look at her and was shocked. She was wearing a white jumpsuit made out of an alien type of synthetic silk with black combat boots. Her left arm was robot-like, but her flesh was still visible within it as well. The metal had the texture and colour of smooth dark grey chrome. A mechanical eyepiece ran over her right eye from the top of her hairline, down the bridge of her nose, around her cheekbone and towards her ear. Near her ear was a tiny knob that was slightly bigger than that of the knob on a wristwatch. A lens that protruded outwards slightly was situated over her eye. It was circular with a black screen-like filling. This part had the same texture and colour as the part on her arm. Libby stood with her arms crossed and foot tapping, waiting for his acknowledgement of her. Sheen gawked in awe,

"My Queen of Awesome Cyborgs, thou could be the princess daughter of Robo-Fiend. It is an honor to be bestowed with your great presence once again."

He bowed before her, taking her good hand and kissing it. Libby giggled,

"You could say that again."

Beside them, Aseefa shifted uncomfortably,

"Sheen, you did not tell me that you were courting another."

Sheen backed away from Libby, stepping towards Aseefa,

"Oh no it's not like that, we're just good friends."

He smiled, but Aseefa wasn't completely convinced. Libby scowled,

"Whoa, back it up. I thought I was your girlfriend."

Sheen laughed nervously between the two girls. Carl could sense the awkwardness and spoke up,

"Hey does anybody want Ultralord crackers? I'll bet there's still one left for each of us."

Carl shoved the box at Aseefa, but she pushed it away, still looking at Sheen with a look of confusion. Nesmith cleared his throat,

"Uhm…I hope you all don't mind me interrupting this…uhm tension…but please tell me, are either of you a genius?"

Between Carl and Libby, his eyes flitted back and forth. Libby responded through gritted teeth, still looking at Sheen,

"Neither of us is a genius, but we did come with one. However, he isn't with us at the moment, because he chose to go after his girlfriend, which actually means something to him."

Sheen held his hands up and opened his mouth to try and explain that he had feelings for both of them, but he turned to see the Emperor walking up to them and ran towards him,

"Emperor, how are you doing today?"

The Emperor laughed,

"As usual, I'm quite good. I heard rumours in the castle that some of your friends have come to retrieve you, and I thought I'd come by to meet them, before we have an official going away party for you."

Sheen threw his arm around the Emperor's shoulders, leading him to his friends,

"You'd throw a going away party for me? That'd be awesome! These are my friends Carl and Libby. Carl and Libby, meet my friend the Emperor of Zeenu."

Libby glared at Sheen, while Carl scooped the Emperor into a hug, happy to meet him. The Emperor squirmed out of Carl's grasp,

"Well any friend of Sheen's is a friend of mine. Come join me and I'll show you around the Palace."

However, before anyone could move, a stream of thick blue light shone down. The light illuminated them, and they looked up to see a massive black ship. Carl and Libby glanced at each other and gulped. They knew all too well it to be one of the Mariscians' ships. The Emperor gaped at the ship above them,

"Is that the ship you came in, new Earthlings?"

Libby shook her head,

"Heck no, but we do know who's ship it is."

The Emperor looked at Libby,

"Oh, have they come to visit too?"

Libby stuttered,

"Oh I don't know about a visit. I think this is just a pick up."

Suddenly, the jet of blue light started pulling at them, hauling them upwards into the ship. It was a tractor beam. Sheen, Libby, Carl, Aseefa, Mr. Nesmith, Doppy and the Emperor sprawled out helplessly, floating in the beam. Mr. Nesmith shouted at Libby,

"Who or what does this ship belong to then?"

Libby looked down at her arm to see a red light blinked on its surface. It was a tracking device. Her brow furrowed with the knowledge that she had been a danger to her friends. If they had inserted that into her without her knowing, what else had they done to her that she couldn't see? She stammered,

"Well I-I didn't exactly choose to look like a robot."

Sheen and the Zeenuwians eyes widened in understanding, and screamed as they entered the giant ship.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: If You Were to Ask Her

If you were to ask her, she would not be able to offer an explanation. She didn't understand why she acted the way she did around him. Sheen and Libby had such a sweet and innocent relationship, but her relationship was naturally competitive, heated and complicated. If she had the option to hug him or trip him, she would definitely trip him before hugging him, or perhaps just trip him. She wouldn't have any regrets either, because he would do the exact same thing to her. That was just the way they worked. Any form of display of affection between the two of them was completely spontaneous, which made those moments they did share that much more meaningful. However, almost immediately afterwards, they would be back at each other's throats. It was an unintentional cycle between the two of them, and if you were to ask her why, she would not be able to offer an explanation. That was just the way they worked, and she wouldn't have it any other way.

In fact, since they had just finished arguing, it was about time the cycle switched sides. They had finally gotten out of the caves, and were trekking across some kind of woodsy space. Jimmy was absorbed in some kind of calculations involving the amount of fuel they had left in the ship and Goddard was sniffing the ground with his tail pointed in tracking mode. That left Cindy to wander a few paces behind them, bored out of her mind. She kicked clumps of grass here and there, sending the patches flying into the trees, leveling out the ground before her. She sighed and looked up from the ground a little too late to notice that the boy genius had stopped and bumped into him. Jimmy stumbled forward, but caught his balance,

"Cindy, watch where you're going!"

Cindy on the other hand, had fallen backwards onto her bottom. She quickly leapt to her feet to brush off her pants, before Jimmy could turn around to see her klutzy fall. She blew her bangs upwards in irritation,

"Watch yourself, Nerdtron! I wouldn't have bumped into you, if you had spoken up."

Jimmy rolled his eyes,

"I shouldn't have to say anything, because in an unknown environment you should be paying attention, not lost in your thoughts."

Cindy scowled,

"For your information, I wasn't thinking about anything at all."

Jimmy smirked,

"Ha, what else is new."

Cindy balled up her fists, but decided to take a deep breath and let that comment slide,

"Why did we stop anyway?"

Jimmy motioned towards Goddard,

"Goddard has detected some of the minerals I've been searching for and he's going to dig them up."

Cindy's eyes widened,

"Uhm, wait a minute. Do you mean to tell me that this whole time Goddard has been tracking minerals and not leading us in the direction of the Palace?"

Jimmy waved off her concerns,

"Relax Vortex, I told Goddard to keep running his previous command, so that he'd only search for the minerals along the same path as the directions."

Cindy's mouth gaped open,

"Neutron, the last command you gave Goddard before this one was Defense mode. Does this look anything like the surface of the Valley of Unpleasant Holes to you?"

Jimmy's calm features slowly contorted into one of alarm when this realization set upon him. Jimmy gulped,

"G-Goddard, boy, are you still on Defense mode?"

Goddard barked an affirmation.

Jimmy sunk to his knees and held his face in his hands, humiliated over his error. Cindy would have normally ripped into him for doing something so stupid, but all she could do was laugh. She held her stomach and doubled over laughing,

"And you call yourself a genius."

Jimmy glared at her,

"This is not funny, Vortex! I've delayed the arrival to our destination even more."

Cindy managed to stifle the rest of her laughter and looked around. The trees were humongous and reached for the sky. She cocked her head to the side as her gaze fell upon a thick tall tree with level branches,

"I'm going to check out the view."

Jimmy peered through his fingers up at her,

"What in puking plutonium would you do that for?"

His words were lost though, because she was already hoisting herself up through the branches. A sly smile crept across his face as he whispered,

"Goddard, fly cycle."

Cindy was halfway up the tree and panting for breath. The trees were like something out of the Redwoods back on Earth. She looked down through the branches in search of Jimmy, but she couldn't see him. She frowned, and kept climbing. After what felt like forever, she finally reached the top and sat down. They were definitely nowhere near some kind of valley filled with holes, but what lay before her erased any trace of regret, for this place was beautiful. Woods lay as far as the eye could see, and above her, the sky swirled into a mixture of pink and purple as the day came to a close. She smiled, but a sudden voice spliced through the silence,

"Hey, Vortex, how nice of you to finally join us up here."

She spun around to find Jimmy and Goddard, already sitting comfortably and few branches above her. Startled, she began to tip backwards, but Jimmy reached out, catching her wrist and pulling her up onto where he was seated. She elbowed him in the side once she was sitting comfortably,

"Neutron, you annoying little devil. You made me climb all of that while you just sailed to the top?"

Jimmy laughed while she fumed. He threw his arm around her shoulder, lightly shaking her to rid of her anger,

"Oh come on, even you have to admit how funny that is! Now quit being a sore loser and enjoy this view. You had a great idea to come up here, it's quite splendid."

A small smile tugged at the corners of her lips as she leaned on his shoulder,

"I have plenty of great ideas, you just never listen."

Jimmy tentatively leaned his head against the top of hers,

"Well I'm listening now."

Cindy hesitantly reached out for his other hand and held it, as they gazed out at their surroundings.

It would have made for a wonderful moment between the two of them, if not for the giant creature which flew up in front of them with what looked like two guards on its back. Before they had a chance to even flinch, their bodies were swept up into the claws of the giant creature. They hung, dangling in the air, swooping over the forest and into the distance. Jimmy yelled,

"What in leaping leptons is going on?"

A guard called down to them,

"We have reason to believe that more of your kind has taken our Emperor, and now you shall face the consequences of the new royal adviser's choosing."

Jimmy gulped. A new royal adviser, what had happened to Sheen and where were the others? It was a no brainer to know that this was not going to go well. He looked at Cindy, "Cindy, lean this way and reach into my backpack to hand me my Encephalo Synthesizer. If I can hold it up at the right angle, I'll be able to know what thoughts the guard has in store for us. Cindy was about to do as she was told, when her blood ran cold. The Encephalo synthesizer…she had left it under the seat in the ship. She felt her insides churn, as the feeling that the universe had betrayed her set in. Why or why did this sort of thing have to happen now? Cindy carefully sifted through Jimmy's bag,

"Uhm, it's not here. Looks like you must have dropped it."

Jimmy shook his head,

"No, I would have felt a change in weight."

Cindy seethed,

"Well it's not here, so get over it already!"

Jimmy looked at her quizzically, wondering why this was getting her so riled up, but his curiosity faded into a sort of understanding,

"Cindy, what did you do with it?"

Cindy huffed,

"Why do you always assume everything is my fault? I didn't do anything to your stupid invention."

Jimmy felt the anger rising in his cheeks,

"Vortex, so help me if you don't tell me right now—"

Cindy rolled her eyes,

"Like what are you going to do Freakbrain? I'm the state champion bla—"

Jimmy didn't want to play games,

"Now, Vortex! Tell me right now!"

Cindy balled up her fists,

"Ohh fine! It's back on the ship."

Jimmy shook his head. Why would it be back on the ship…unless…

"Did you use it on me?"

"What? No, obviously not! Like I would want to know what kind of weirdness goes on in there."

Jimmy deadpanned. The only thing that was obvious to him was that she was completely guilty. He closed his eyes, trying to remember what he had been thinking about. When his thoughts drifted to her, he gasped. He averted his eyes from her, as he tried to explain his rationality firmly but his voice trembled,

"What you heard was a mere contemplation of hormone confusion. I was overtired and left with nothing but my thoughts in empty space, so my brain simply considered certain emotions out of context. There is no use getting a big head over anything."

Cindy was looking at him like he was crazy, as if her head could get any bigger than his already was. However, his words struck a chord within her. _My brain simply considered certain emotions out of context. There is no use getting a big head over anything. _Her face turned into a devilish grin,

"Neutron, you were thinking of me?"

Jimmy rolled his eyes, not in the mood for her rubbing it in, but stopped himself. She had phrased her sentence as a question, so…that wasn't what she had listened in on. His mouth gaped open at his own stupidity. Cindy laughed,

"All I heard was some kind of bogus dream with Einstein, but I'm flabbergasted to know that of all the topics to converse with him about, you chose me."

Jimmy was speechless, so he just narrowed his eyes on the horizon and ignored her. Throughout the entire journey there, Cindy relentlessly pressed and teased him for more information, but Jimmy remained silent, not giving her the benefit of the doubt. Goddard whined as the cycle began to switch sides again, because that was just the way they worked, and if anyone were to ask Cindy now, she definitely wouldn't have it any other way.

* * *

Libby awoke in a dark room. She held her head as her eyes adjusted to the dark, making out the bodies of her friends scattered on the ground around her still unconscious. She shook her head as she tried to remember where they were and what had happened. The memory came flooding back to her and she gasped. Where were they, but more importantly what had they truly done to her? Libby stood up, but her legs felt woozy and she sat back down. She shook her head, the memory seeming to escape her. She closed her eyes and opened them again. She looked around shocked to see others around her too. She squinted at them, and felt as if she knew them, but shook her head again closing her eyes. The next time she opened them, her vision was a dull red.

* * *

**A/N: Hey everyone! I want to thank you so much for reading this far into my story. I also really appreciate those who have reviewed. It's great to know where people's thoughts are concerning the story line, so that I can steer it in a direction that everyone will like:) Sorry that I've only been updating once a week right now. I had caught a really bad cold and my head wasn't in it. Also, I was registering for my courses in the next fall semester. **

**To fanfictionstoryreviewer: Goobot certainly has evil plots in mind, but the Void has other things in mind. Will Goobot's plans be overrun by the Void's? You'll just have to keep reading to find out:) **

**To Jack Coffison: Thank you so much for the reviews! I really try my best to keep all of the characters in character and have their interactions as realistic as possible. There will be two more characters that will show up very soon to rescue Sheen yet again along with the others:) **

**To Super Guest: Fret not my friend! Libby will turn out okay, but for now her conversion serves as an important factor to the story:) **

**To brainblast: Thank you for the reviews! I can assure you that my plot will definitely stay intact and I will not deviate from it. As for my scientific vocabulary, it's actually all terminology I've used through studying the sciences. It's fun to put a little of it to use in the story:) **


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Bringing the House Down

They had hit the ground and tumbled into a roll before skidding to a stop. The creature had thrown them into the smooth beige Royal Palace by an open purple balcony. Jimmy, Cindy and Goddard looked about dazed as more guards closed in on them, yanked them up by their collars and took them over to a wall where their ankles were shackled. Inside, the floors were covered by a type of velvet burgundy carpeting and yellow walls enveloped the room with gold columns and crown molding. A few widely spaced steps rose to a platform where a thrown was situated.

Upon the thrown lay a figure clad in violet robes with a single rope around the waist. It laid horizontally across the throne with its legs crossed over the armrest. It didn't seem to be in that much of a hurry to speak with its shackled prisoners. However, around him fluttered a tiny orange creature, which did seem to have its gazed fixated on the kids. Jimmy waited for his blurred vision from knocking his head on the ground to fade back to normal, and as it did he drew in an uneasy breath, for the orange creature a distance away only had what looked like one eye.

Jimmy glanced at Cindy who stood biting the nails of one of her hands, her eyes wandering around the room anxiously. Jimmy grimaced and stepped backwards slightly, causing his chain to rustle slightly. This seemed to catch the attention of the figure, but it still didn't turn to them. Instead, it raised its hand as a signal for the guards to leave the room while it interrogated the intruders. The guards nodded and made their way out of the room. Once the large double doors clicked shut behind them, the figure immediately rose and turned to face them. Jimmy and Cindy's eyes widened as what looked like a tall thin teal skinned man slowly walked towards them, the other creature hovering by its shoulder. It stopped in front of them and simply stared at them. Jimmy, Cindy and Goddard stared back, unable to pry their eyes away from the man's searing gaze. However, what happened next utterly stumped them, because the creature's face broke into a huge grin as he threw his arms up in the air, exclaiming his thanks towards them.

Jimmy, Cindy and Goddard looked at each other bewildered, and returned their gaze to the man. The man studied their faces and saw that they had no idea what he was referring to, so he cleared his throat.

"I want to thank you and your kind for ridding of the insolent irritating thing that is Sheen. I cannot describe the joy that overwhelmed me when your ship came by and sucked him and his wretched friends into it to carry them off never to be seen again. I am Dorkus and I welcome you to the Royal Palace…but I seriously hope you leave very soon."

Jimmy, Cindy and Goddard looked at each other again, but this time with shock. Jimmy gulped, "Uhm, can you perhaps describe this ship and who exactly it took with it?"

"Well it was large, bulky and black as the night sky, which released some kind of blue light that picked up Sheen, Aseefa, Doppy, Mr. Nesmith, the Emperor and two other kids that I didn't recognize. Never mind that though, I need you to bring back the Emperor. Please keep the others and do as you please with them, but release the Emperor immediately, for then I can assume my rightful place as the Royal Adviser beside someone much more competent then his daughter Oom," Dorkus said rolling his eyes, but stopped when he saw that the children before him looked terrified. "Wait, you don't mean to tell me that the ship didn't belong to your kind."

Jimmy, Cindy and Goddard slowly shook their heads. Clearing his throat, Jimmy spoke, "That ship must have belonged to the Mariscians. They must've been on our trail since we left, but I made sure that there were no tracking devices on our ship…unless Libby—"

"I thought you said she was fine!" Cindy screeched cutting him off.

"Well, from the surface she looked fine, but I didn't really get the chance to examine her more closely," Jimmy said rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

"Neutron, when I get my hands on you!" Cindy tugged on her chain rearing her fist at the boy genius who was shrinking back from her.

Dorkus stood in between them shouting. "Alright that's enough from you two. Now tell me how we are going to get to them," he crossed his arms and glared at them.

Jimmy gulped, "Well, my guess is that they took all of them to hold them hostage to get to me, so they must still be in orbit awaiting my arrival. I need to get back to my ship first though."

Dorkus exclaimed, "Well then let's go get that ship!"

"You want to come with us?" Jimmy asked perplexed.

"Of course, I have to be the one to save the Emperor in order to guarantee my rightful place in this Palace," Dorkus grinned maniacally.

Dorkus unshackled the kids as prisoners and they all made their way to the balcony where I giant winged creature was waiting for them. A voice rang out behind them:

"Oh this is so exciting, going off on such a grand adventure."

All except Dorkus turned around amazed to see that the creature hovering beside Dorkus could speak.

"Ah yes, I almost forgot to introduce you to my loyal minion, Pinter. Pinter, I would like you to meet…uhm, who are you all exactly?" Dorkus held out his hand to showcase minion, but then looked at the kids interested.

Jimmy smiled, "I'm Jimmy Neutron, boy genius, and this is my dog Goddard and annoying female friend, Cindy Vortex."

Cindy scoffed, but Dorkus didn't see since he was already on the creature while they climbed on. He held onto reins of the winged creature and turned his head to glance at them. "Alright, good to know, now if you would be so kind as to tell me where I'm going to retrieve your ship," Dorkus said.

"Well, we had left it in some sort of grayish canyon," Jimmy responded.

Dorkus nodded, "Ah alright, I know where that is. One more thing before we leave, Pinter you can't come."

Pinter gasped, "But Sir! How come?"

Dorkus sighed, "Someone needs to stay and watch over Oom."

* * *

Once they reached the ship, they hopped off and boarded it. Dorkus marveled at the source of technology and gaped at Jimmy. "I know you said that you were genius, but you actually built this?" Dorkus asked, but then gasped, "The prophecy must have been talking about you! Jimmy, was it you who built Sheen's rocket?"

Jimmy nodded, "Yep that was my rocket. What prophecy?"

Dorkus looked at him wide eyed, "It was foretold that a boy genius would crash land on our planet and teach us his ways. That no good Sheen has been an imposter all of this time and I knew it!"

Jimmy looked at Dorkus stunned. It had been his plan to find a planet, which would appreciate his love of science. He sighed, sad that Sheen had taken the opportunity from him. Cindy huffed in the corner from the knowledge that there was some stupid prophecy about Neutron, irritated with how everything seemed to revolve around him. She leaned back against the console accidently pressing a button, releasing a missile into the sky. The group looked out of the window to watch it make a parabolic shape before crashing into something in the distance. Dorkus sighed, "There goes my house…again. Oh how I will be so happy once your kind is forever gone from here."

"Nice going, Vortex," Jimmy said shoving her, "You broke Dorkus' house."

"Well I wouldn't have had to if you would've gotten your head out of the clouds, absorbed in your ego, and had taken off already," Cindy retorted shoving him back.

Dorkus could feel his impatience boiling in his veins. "Can we please move along already?"

Jimmy rolled his eyes and put the ship in gear. They were off to save Sheen again and knew that it wouldn't be easy, for they could only imagine what Goobot had in store for them.

* * *

**A/N: Hey everyone! I'm so sorry for the wait, things have been really busy. This is officially the halfway point to the story! Yayy! Things will involve more action from here on out, since a lot of the main characters have now been introduced. Don't worry I will finish this story!:) **


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